Friday Nights in our household is Family Night. I usually menu plan "fake take away" for Friday night and most weeks we also have dessert (which is fairly rare in this house). After tea we sit down and play either a card game or board game together. We find it a great way to end the week and the kids always look forward to Friday Night's. I'm hoping it is something they look back on fondly when they're grown and flown from the nest.
Before we instituted "Family Night" we always had the best of intentions of playing games together as a family but the old "roundtoit" ... well we all know how hard they are to find. :-) By having a routine of doing it regularly on a Friday night, we find it actually happens. At the moment our range of games is a little limited by our children's abilities but we are slowly expanding our collection. If anyone can recommend games that are suitable for a wide range of ages - let me know. It's always good to hear what others have found good.
It's not something we stick to "religiously". If we have something on on a Friday night, family night gets missed for that week. Occasionally if DH and I aren't feeling real great or the kids are overtired, we'll skip the game (or play a quick round of Uno).
Last night for Family Night we had a video night. The kids have been wanting to see Garfield 2 for quite some time now. I managed to pick it up on special at the Target Toy Sale while we were away but wouldn't let them watch it until last night. They have been looking forward to it all week. I think delayed gratification really enhanced the experience. Instead of the brief joy at buying the DVD they really wanted followed quickly by watching it and the experience is over, they had to wait almost a week to conclude the experience. I like to get good mileage out of $$ spent. LOL. By knowing exactly when they were going to get to watch it, I think that took the frustration out of waiting too.
For tea we had chicken kebabs and potato slices cooked on the BBQ with lettuce from our garden and grated cheese and carrot. We tend to go a bit lighter on the vegies on Friday nights. :-) Chicken kebabs are not what I'd normally class as "fake take away" but they are a favourite with the kids so I get away with it occasionally. There was a piece of homemade slice for dessert and then I made several batches of popcorn and served them up in milkshake cups. The kids thought it was the "best night ever". LOL. For around $20 we had tea and entertainment with snacks for 5 people. Can't get much better than dinner and a movie for $4 a head!
And I'm sure the DVD will get a good workout - the kids are still at that age where they want to watch the same movie over and over again. The 3 year old has already watched it twice today! He's not well (croup) so having a quiet home day with mum.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Family Night
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7 comments:
That sounds really good. You've inspired me to see what games we have hiding away - I don't know if I could get DH to play though, so they may have to be 2 person games!
I have fond memories of playing boggle and monoploy on family nights when I was younger, i am sure your kids will treasure these times in years to come.
We too have a fortnightly games night at home. Usually it is Friday night, but sometimes Saturday night. My youngest is 11 so we tend to have a fairly good selection of games. The last couple I picked up at a thrift store for under $5 each. Not sure with a 3 year old that I can suggest any of our games, but maybe you could team up your younger ones with a parent to even it out a bit? Our fave game at the moment is an old one called "20 Q".
what a great idea ~ and a great way to bond as a family :)
Sounds fantastic, Jodi. We've kind of decided to have a family meeting Friday night, but we could possibly incorporate dessert / games after that...
I think Trouble is a game that works pretty well for a range of ages... we bought Hungry Hippos which is fine for younger ones too but gets boring pretty quickly. Dominoes? We also have My First Operation which I actually find quite tricky.
We too used to have games and lolly night on Fridays until Youth group took over. That began because we observed some older friends do it with their girls before we even had kids!They would get a surprise treat and sometimes it was our turn to take some treats! It was heaps fun...and a great time of bonding! However Josh decided to make his own Twister game on a large sheet of cardboard last night and the 3 "boys" had an absolute ball on the limted space in the family room (which I think made it better). I was the caller and had a great laugh watching them get tangled. We now play Skipbo and Phase 10 but that may be a bit hard for your younger one. My youngest learnt squatter and monopoly at a very young age even if he played Banker with help. My 3 "boys" still often play hide and seek inside in the dark! It is hard to find games all like but our family prefers maths or strategy based games! There is a younger and fun version for all - game like Celebrity heads available or you can make your own..... using basic things like fruit and veg, animals, objects etc that can be found around the home... I played that recently with a young 4 yo friend and I had a great time trying to guess the simplest of things!
Another great idea is to temporarily swap your games with other friends for a short time. I used to do this with some toys and it worked well. If i didnt want to share some I'd store them in the shed and bring them out every holidays and they's be like new toys for the kids again. Just takes a little planning! LS
Thanks for the game suggestions everyone. If there are any others - keep them coming. :-)
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